READ MORE | School stands by decision as public takes sides
The trustees of Shorter University plan to make the path of their tiny campus in northwest Georgia “straight” and they aren’t afraid to purge the gays from their ranks to do so.
In a fresh twist on loyalty oaths, trustees at the private school announced on Tuesday that among several “exciting” policy changes is their effort to purge sexually active gays from their employee ranks. How so? By requiring employees to sign a Personal Lifestyle Statement.
Included in the document’s four-pronged Principles of Personal Conduct is this nugget: “I reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality.” Don’t sign and the statement promises disciplinary action “up to and including immediate termination.” That’s so Joe McCarthy.
Employees also can’t drink alcohol in front of students, advocate its use in public or attend campus events within six hours of a cocktail.
The school also unveiled a fancy new logo, no doubt created by a graphic artist before the Personal Lifestyle Statement was enacted. It pitches the Rome campus as “Transforming Lives through Christ.”
“The ‘why’ is really simple: What you stand for matters,” Trustee Chair-elect Joe Frank Harris Jr., says in a prepared statement. “Proverbs 3:5-6 tell us to ‘Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.’ If we acknowledge Him, He will make this university’s path straight.”
Even Harris’ employer, Columbus, Ga.-based insurance giant AFLAC, includes sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policies. But the company consistently declines to take part in the Corporate Equality Index from the Human Rights Campaign, one of the few Fortune 1000 companies headquartered in Georgia absent from the gauge of how companies approach LGBT issues.
